Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
An interesting fact about the Bethlehem Area Public Library's southside branch - is that it offers not only traditional library services, but it is also a community hub for non-traditional items that allow patrons to check out gardening tools and seeds, merging traditional library services with community gardening.
The Southside Branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania opened on May 28th, 1906 in the post office building at the corner of Fourth Street and Brodhead Avenue.
It then moved to the Quinn School building in 1921, the Southside Junior High School in 1922, and to West Fourth Street in 1927.
In the spring of 1929, construction began on a colonial style building on the corner of Fourth and Webster Streets and is where the library stands today. At the time of its construction, the library cost $75,000 to build and featured a Moravian-inspired, steeple-like cupola at the edifice.
The new Southside Branch opened on January 2, 1930. It employed five librarians, including the lead librarian, Carolyn Minogue. Southside residents demonstrated their excitement for their new library by checking out over 1,100 books on its first day of operation.
To commemorate the opening, librarian Louise Hazen painted a mural—much of which still remains—in the children’s storytime room in the basement. The mural features characters from classic children’s stories, such as Robin Hood, King Arthur, the Pied Piper, and Aladdin. The children’s storytime room was not the only colorful setting in the library.
As published in the Bethlehem Globe Times in the building’s early days, “the stacks, desks, and chairs of this room are all in a soft shade of green, the walls are oyster color and the floor is covered with linoleum in brown and green squares.”
In 1977, the Library began The Reading Project, a program for tutoring hundreds of Bethlehem residents in English language and literacy. Featuring a Spanish-language collection of books, magazines, and music, the Southside Branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library worked with volunteer tutors to provide for everyone in the Southside community.
In the early 1990s, new technology allowed the Southside branch to connect with the Main library in North Bethlehem, increasing access to books.
In 2013, the library underwent a renovation that included technology updates, structural upgrades, an improved floor plan with a new children’s area, and tech friendly furniture.
Despite all of these updates, the Southside Branch, as well as the Bethlehem Area Public Library as a whole, has been experiencing a decline in visitors.
Check out the Southside Branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library’s website for its calendar of upcoming events and activities for arts and crafts, gaming, health and wellness and the STEM education programs.
Information for this episode was provided by the
Bethlehem Area Public Library’s website - articles from the Brown and White newspaper that include, “the Bethlehem Public Library: It’s more than books” by Ella Holland, the “Library landlocked by Lehigh housing loses foot traffic” by Katie Lynn Miller, and “Community Voices: The importance of libraries” by Christine Wieder.
We want to give a special thanks to Jordan Knox, an undergraduate student studying English and Environmental Studies at Lehigh University for her writing contribution for this episode.
